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During 2005, 66,000 parents, with children in foster care, had their parental rights terminated. 60% were adopted by a foster parent.

Family Rights and Child Abuse News

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Family Court Reform efforts and
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For 7 million Canadian children, this is the season of new: new backpacks, new clothes, new notebooks, new pencils, new teachers, new classrooms, new experiences and if you live in Ontario, new sexually graphic curriculum.

Except for that last bit, all the new and exciting things that seem to be taking place for everyone else can make a homeschooling Mom feel a wee bit left out, maybe even a bit guilty or jealous - especially if her morning has gotten off to a rough start.

An Ohio third-grader weighing more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care when county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight.

The Plain Dealer reports that the 8-year-old is considered severely obese and at risk for diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The Ohio Health Department estimates more than 12 percent of third-graders statewide are severely obese. The removal of the Cleveland child is the first state officials can recall of a child being put in foster care for a strictly weight-related issue.

I wrote earlier about the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) updated Dirty Dozen list of most toxic produce from a consumer perspective.

Shortly after the list was announced, Tom Philpott, now at Mother Jones asked, "What about the farm workers?" Turns out that the cleanest produce from a consumer perspective - the "Clean Fifteen" - are at least as toxic as the "Dirty Dozen". I looked up the total amount of pesticides applied in California in 2009 to each of the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen items and also the total number of acres planted for each, and calculated pesticide use intensity for each. (I used California data since its the only data available, and since pineapples, mangoes, and blueberries aren't grown in California I had to omit these). Here's what I found...

As the gay adoption debate shows no signs of resolution in America, the Republican party's Representative for Hendersonville, Debra Maggart, says she believes gay couples may adopt children for the purpose of molesting them.

"We also have seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and have, in some instances, adopted them in order to have unfretted access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse," she claimed.

A Colorado teenager named Coltyn Turner just celebrated the 22nd month of his debilitating Crohn's Disease being in remission, after beginning cannabis oil treatment.

The Turner family was forced to move to Colorado, from Illinois, in an effort to allow Coltyn to use his medication without fear of being considered a criminal and thrown in a cage, although the young man has been fearless in his resolve.

School report cards for children in foster care usually show they are behind their peers in almost every academic measure. A U.S. Senate committee takes a closer look at the problem.

Daniel Heimple, project director at Fostering Media Connections, provides background on why foster children struggle in school. "There's the trauma they may have endured, as well as move from home to home and bounce from school district to school district and can't form a stable school environment. That hurts their education."

Maryanne Godboldo, a mother in Michigan, noticed that pills prescribed by her daughter's doctor were making her condition worse, not better. So Mrs. Godboldo stopped giving them to her. That's when the trouble began.

When Child Protective Services (CPS) bureaucrats became aware that the girl was not receiving her prescribed medication, they decided the child should be taken away from her mother's custody on grounds of medical neglect. When Ms. Godboldo refused to surrender her daughter to the state, CPS enlisted the help of a police SWAT team! On March 24 of this year a 12 hour standoff ensued and young Ariana was taken into custody.

A Watertown man has been arrested after pulling the pants down, or "pantsing," of an 11-year-old female.

The arrest stems from incidents from June to July where Blair pulled the outer pants of the underage female down multiple times. It is reported that he also untied a bikini bottom of the girl on one other occasion. State Police were assisted in the investigation by Jefferson County Child Protective Services.

When little Shelby Duis was found dead at her Spirit Lake home - with massive head injuries, fractured ribs and two broken hands - it sent a shock through the entire state.

Neighbors and day-care workers had warned child protective workers for nearly a year before the 2-year-old's January 2000 death that the girl was being abused. Then, later that same year, an Oskaloosa man came forward to say that he'd told officials for months his 23-month-old son was being mistreated by his estranged wife and her boyfriend before the boy was hospitalized with critical brain and spinal injuries.